I started my first company in 1996 while attending McGill University. It was between my 3rd and 4th years. I completed my degree and graduated, but work was a heck of a lot more fun. Plus, I never picked up my diploma… Earlier today I spoke at Startup Square’s inaugural event. What’s great about Startup […]
How Do Startups Get Partners To Acquire Them?
Startups face huge risks when looking for channel partners. Often startups go after massive corporations as partners (because those companies have the sales channels and resources), which makes the relationships highly inequitable. But one of the benefits of partnerships is securing early relationships with potential acquirers. Many companies are ultimately acquired by partners. It only […]
4 Ways to Align Interests Between Startup Founders and Investors
Are investors and startup founders on the same side of the table, or the opposite side? A: Depends. When things are going well, everyone feels like they’re on the same side of the table. When things are going not so well, it’s a different story. This is the reality of the startup-investor relationship. It’s not […]
Use of Funds
Almost every investor pitch, whether to angel investors or venture capitalists involves one slide near the end about how much money a startup is looking to raise, milestones it hopes to achieve and generally, the “use of funds.” The intent behind describing the use of funds is to explain to the potential investors how you […]
10 Startup To-Dos: Things You Should Really Think About When Starting a Company
I did a quick presentation at the Montreal.rb meeting about startup to-dos — things you should really think about before starting companies. It’s great to see more and more developers and tech folks interested in starting companies. In places like Silicon Valley it’s often tech people who launch startups. We need more startups in Montreal […]
How To Build a Start-Up Nation
There’s been no shortage of debate and discussion about how to replicate the Silicon Valley startup ecosystem (or whether it’s even possible, worthwhile or applicable to other places). I wrote about it way back when in 2007 and certainly a lot has changed and improved in a few years. But when you read a book […]
Startups Face Huge Risk with Channel Partner Strategy
Every so often I read a blog post and say, “I wish I had written that!” That was absolutely the case with Mark Suster’s post, The Fallacy of Channels: Startups Beware. Mark hits the nail right on the head with respect to the risk (and usually the abject failure) for startups using a channel partner […]
Startup Cultures are not an Automatic Success
People assume that startups have a certain type of culture. It’s fast-paced. Lots of caffeine is involved. Personal hygiene is optional. And the culture is automatically ingrained from day one. But none of those things are (necessarily) true. Too many startups – and specifically startup founders – ignore their internal culture or don’t maintain a […]
Startup D.O.A
How often have you seen startups go down the following road? A couple people come up with an idea. They’re excited. Really, really excited. They get nervous about competition or people stealing their plans. So they get very hush hush. They start building something. This usually involves locking themselves in a small, dark room with […]
7 Key Points for Brainstorming Startup Ideas
One of my favorite exercises is brainstorming startup ideas with other entrepreneurs. You can gain a lot of value from a fresh perspective. When “pitched an idea” for brainstorming or feedback I tend to go through the same 7 key points and questions each time. That tends to spur strong discussion, new ideas and new […]
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